Crafty Gift Card Wrapping

Everybody loves getting gift cards. They are as good as getting money, only slightly more personal. It's as if the giver is saying, "I know enough about you to know where you shop, but I don't know what the hell you'd buy there." And for that self-awareness, we thank them. But my problem with giving gift cards, is that they're not quite personal enough. So, the last time I was giving them as a gift I decided to dress them up a little and give them a touch of me. Here's how I did it:





Step one

One of my secrets for learning new crafty things is to do a video search of what I'm trying to do. I searched for things like origami envelope and DIY envelope. Eventually, I found this helpful tutorial:



Perfect DIY Envelope - Video Instruction - The funniest videos are a click away
I had to watch it several times. It was helpful to pause it as I made my envelope, watching the video step by step. I used card stock for durability. That and the pretty colors

Step 2

After that I found yarn from my stash that complemented the color of the paper and whipped up some flowers. I did these freehand. I like to see how the flowers develop, and it's fun to see what I can come up with. Unfortunately, working without a pattern leads to a lot of trial and error, which you should expect as part of the process. If you're under a time crunch or just don't feel comfortable flying by the seat of your pants, here is a great website with a mind-boggling variety of patterns to choose from:

Crochet Pattern Central.com flower page

Or you can try a few of the patterns I made. My sister chose a flower theme for the last burning man, so I went on a little crafty bender. By the time the smoke cleared, I realized I'd sent all my flowers off to the burn without taking decent pictures of them. Thank goodness I had the presence of mind to right a few patterns down, because those flowers were distributed throughout Black Rock City and are probably still covered in playa.

Daisy



Petals:

ch3, 12 hdc into 3rd ch from hook, sl st into 1st hdc.

1) *ch5 skip 2, sl st into next st. turn sl into next st.* repeat around, ending with sl into st after 1st ch.

2) a) sl into first ch. ch2. 2hdc, dc, htc, dc, 2hdc into ch.

b) ch2, turn, hdc, hdc, dc htc dc into next, dc, hdc, hdc.

c) ch2, turn, skip, hdc, hdc, dc, htc tc htc into next, dc, hdc, hdc.

d) sl st down side and into ch5.

Repeat around and bind off.

middle

sl st. into one of the 12hdc(*).

1) ch2 dc into each of the skipped hdc under the ch5's. sl st into first dc.

2) ch2 dc into each st sl st. inti first.

3) ch1 sc, hdc, sc into same st, *sl st into next, sc hdc sc into next*

(*) Sl st here:


Picture from Free Vintage Crochet (I tweaked it a little)

Purple six-petaled flower



With first color:

1.) ch3. 12hdc into 3rd ch from hook. sl into 1st hdc.

2.) ch4. sl into *3rd st from ch turn. sl into next st. ch4 turn.* repeat around. end by sl st into st after first ch4. Bind off.

With second color

1.) sl st. into ch. ch 2. 3hdc, dc, htc, dc, 3hdc.

2.) ch 2. hdc into next 4 st. 3dc into next st. hdc into next 4 st.

3.) ch 1. sc into next st. hdc into next 3 st. 2hdc into next st. hdc into next 3 st. sc into next st. ch 1. sl st. into ch2.

4.) Sl st down the side and into ch4.

*Repeat steps 1-4 around*

Step 3

The third and final step is to wrap it all together. Put your gift card (or money, or anything small, really) into the envelope. Then

1) take your yarn (it could be cute if you used a contrasting color to your flower), still attached to the ball, and thread it through part of the back of your flower. Pull a good length of it through.

2) Position your flower where you want it on the envelope, then flip the whole thing over.

3) Take both lengths of yarn, on either side of the envelope in your hands. Keeping them taught, twist them around each other once, so they are perpendicular to where they used to be. E.g. they were horizontal and now they're vertical.

4) Flip your package over. Now, pull the two lengths of yarn tight, but not too tight, tie them together in a knot and cut the excess yarn.

5) Slide the knot underneath the flower and admire your handiwork.



Eventually I plan to add a few more flower patterns to this post once I figure out what the heck I did originally, and how I made this lotus-y looking flower: